Touch screen tablets like the iPad or the Kindle Fire, and “touch-based” Ultrabooks now in development, are on a collision course with touchless, motion-based technology.

You’ve already “cut the cord” with your wireless mouse, your bluetooth keyboard and your gaming console controller. Now prepare to excise them from your work and play routines altogether. These kinetic devices are about to become the relics of a Kinetizoic era.

In a few short months, (a lot sooner if you’re a developer), you will be able to control your computer in Tom Cruise Minority Report-style with natural hand and finger movements. A $70 USB-powered device the size of a candy bar is the technological leap made by a company called LEAP Motion. Want to draw, paint, or sculpt in 3D? How about type, strum or search in thin air? The Leap’s sensors can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements to 1/100th of a millimeter. That puts devices like Microsoft’s Kinect on notice.

Leap Motion is backed by $14.5 million in venture capital, has just started taking preorders for the $69.99 PC- and Mac-compatible device, which it plans to ship in early 2013. While no specific apps have yet been announced, over 25,000 software developer unit applications from 143 countries have begun to fill the ranks of a creative community that will propel computing into the advanced motion-tracking age. To apply as a developer, here’s where to sign-up.

Leap will leapfrog Kinect and Wii in dazzling proportions. but it is creating both competitive threats and opportunities.

What will likely prove the deciding factor, says SlashGear’s Chris Davies is the degree of refinement of any form of motion tracking. “If you’re swinging a sword around a virtual world, then your Kinect probably doesn’t need to be too accurate to satisfy. If, though, you’re trying to navigate a text-dense document or manipulate a complex graphics project, there can be no scrimping on precision. One of the key differences between a cheap tablet and an iPad or one of the more polished Android models is the responsiveness and accuracy of the touchscreen: if the manufacturer gets that wrong, and the finger-feel is off, owners will just give up on using it.”

Motion control technology could also rescue Microsoft from one of its more contentious Windows decisions. “Play it right, and Leap Motion – and others with it – could kill touch in traditional computing before its even had a chance to get started,” said Davies. Intel and Microsoft are pushing OEMs to deliver touchscreen ultrabooks running Windows 8, betting on there being a segment of users willing to pay for tablet-style touchwith the added input flexibility of a regular keyboard.

Leap's Word Cloud of Possible Applications

Where Microsoft can resolve limbs, Leap is following individual fingers. It could do what touchscreens and other technologies have failed to achieve in desktops and laptops to-date: convince the everyman that they’re fundamentally better than the good old keyboard and mouse.

An early favorite for gadget of the year at SXSW 2013, Leap Motion has submitted four panels for consideration to the conference SxSW 2013. Vote for your favorite SXSW panel online. [24×7]

Larry Sivitz is founder, publisher and managing editor of Seattle24x7, the founder of SearchWrite Search Marketing, an SEO, PPC and Social Media Thought Leader, and an SPJ award winner for Seattle magazine.

What's Brewing

Like a burst of color springing to life after a monochromatic rainy season, Seattle’s color rainbow has come to life this Spring in the form of a carousel of new streetcar colors, thanks to an increasing ambulatory workforce.

The colored passenger trolleys fan out across the Emerald City like the NBC peacock.

Hot pink is for Capitol Hill, reflecting the color of “Seattle modern energy,” at least according to our new public streetcar “visual vocabulary.”

The newly manufactured streetcars now beginning to roll out on Seattle city streets were actually imported from the Czech Republic company known as Inekom Trams, but not without Seattle civic engagement. The city’s contract included a local jobs initiative in the bid process. As a result, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) was left with the painting of the streetcars creating a visual color code for the trolley neighborhoods in the process.

What colors are being spilled onto the avenues and thoroughfares of Seattle?

Sky blueis the streetcar for First Hill hospitals, in homage to the babies and maternity wards found there. Red and yellowadorned trolleys are painted for the Seattle’s International District, the traditional colors of China, and greenfor Little Saigon. South Lake Union has seen its streetcar colors turn orange — Amazon’s corporate color. The color gold was chosen for Pioneer Square in honor of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. And for Capitol Hill?” Why, pink for the “modern energy” of the neighborhood.

The first completed tram for the First Hill Streetcar — sky blue — completed a 600-foot ride on Friday morning, shuttling just a small number of passengers testing for the system moved into full motion. According to sources, “It only required one ‘reboot.’”

“This is another step in our efforts to get streetcars running throughout Seattle,” passenger and Mayor Ed Murray said to the media assembled to cover the event at the system’s International District maintenance facility.

When service begins, the First Hill Streetcar will have ten stations along a 2.5 mile route from S Jackson and Occidental to Broadway and Denny Way and will connect Pioneer Square, the ID, Little Saigon, First Hill and Capitol Hill. The project will cost somewhere around $130 million before all is said and done. Sound Transit is footing the bill as part of mitigation for being unable to construct a First Hill station as part of the U-Link light rail project. That project along with Capitol Hill Station is slated to open in early 2016. The streetcar’s current northern terminus will deliver riders to Broadway and Denny — across the street from Capitol Hill Station.

Fares will be set by the Sound Transit board. The South Lake Union line’s adult fare is now $2.25. First Hill Streetcar fare is “anticipated to be similar to Link Light Rail and Metro peak hour fares.” Riders without ORCA cards will be able to purchase tickets at fare box machines located on station platforms.

Hours of operation will be 5 AM to 1 AM Monday to Saturday and 10 AM to 8 PM on Sundays and holidays. “The streetcar will run at 10-minute intervals during peak hours (Monday through Friday 6-9 AM and 3-6 PM), 12 minutes midday and Saturdays, and approximately 15 minutes at other times,” according to this FAQ. [24×7]